Theres A Bug Going Around

I wake up curled up in a fetal position. The ceiling light is blinding me but that did not wake me up. I reach for my phone that I know is somewhere near my head. It shows the time to be 3:45 am.

Didn't I fall asleep less than an hour ago? Why am I up? Something tells me that this is not the first time that I am being woken up.

I can feel goosebumps on my whole body and I can feel myself shivering. The wall fan is directly blowing in my direction and I don't have a sheet to cover myself. I still haven't moved out of the position I am in when I decide to gently turn over looking for the fan's remote.

My hand frantically searches the bed. It is not on the bed. I let my hand drop off the bed and onto the floor next to my bed, rummaging through all the things lying there. I feel my way through tissue, plastic forks, books, microphone, pens, bottle of water and an old food carton but the remote is no where to be found.

There is no way I am going to be able to get up and switch the fan off. I pull both my pillows onto myself trying to avoid the cold as much as possible and make an attempt to go back to sleep.

Sadly, that doesn't work. I am again woken up and this time not only am I shivering I can also feel my body expending copious amounts of heat. I am slightly surprised at how much worse the fever has gotten. My hand is still dangling from the side of the bed and I make another attempt to find the remote.

I finally find it, not among the things I was searching through earlier but nicely resting under the bed. How did it get there when I was using it just a while ago? That is anyone's guess. I switch the fan off and go to sleep.

It is 4:30 am and I am again woken up. This time I am drenched in sweat. The air outside the window is very stagnant and there is a constant humming of vehicles passing by. The morning trains are just starting up and they sound like old steam engines gearing up for one last journey.

My bed and pillows are soaked in sweat and I make a mental note to wash the bed sheet. Either that or throw it out. I reach out to switch the fan back on and fall asleep again.

This happens throughout the night and I give up on any hope of getting a good night's sleep. Naturally, I am up at 7:30 am in the morning. I really want to make it to work and I believe that if I can make it to office I should be OK. I can just sit at my desk and get at least a few things done but pushing off the bed is a real challenge. It feels as if I have no muscles in my arms and legs and the workout I did yesterday has left my legs feeling unusually stiff. It feels as if my whole body has shrunk as it burns to produce all the heat.

I make a few more attempts to push myself off the bed at regular intervals and all of which are utterly unsuccessful. The most energy I can muster is when I reach out to silence the early morning alarms set on my phone.

It is 01:00 pm and I have now been in bed for almost eleven hours. I still feel the same sick and drowsy feeling in my head and my muscles aren't doing a lot better. Determined to make it to work at least for half a day I roll off the bed and fall on the floor with a loud thud. Great now I am off the bed. I pull myself up using the bed and sit on it for a while, exhausted from the effort. With one big push of will I take my towel and toothbrush and walk to the bathroom.

Fuck! They still haven't fixed the water heater! So now I have to take a cold shower and I am just hoping that it will help reduce the fever. I enter the bathroom and look in the mirror. I look like a drug addict on withdrawal. I quickly brush and shower under the cold water which does not feel as bad.

I come out feeling a lot calmer and my body is a lot cooler. This, of course, hasn't at all helped with the feeling of drowsiness. I decide that even if I were to make it to work I won't be able to get much done in this state. Instead, I decide to visit a doctor nearby.

As my luck with clinics goes the one I was planning to visit is closed till 06:00 pm in the evening. What kind of a clinic is closed in the afternoon is beyond me! I travel to another clinic nearby. They make me wait for a whole good hour before I can see the doctor. Once inside he sticks the thermometer in my ear and the reading comes out to be 38.8. I definitely was not expecting it to be so high. He prescribes some of the usual painkillers, cough syrup and lozenges and I leave wondering why I couldn't have just bought them over the counter.

On reaching home I am too exhausted to even eat the lunch I had bought on the way. It doesn't even look very appetizing. I eat what I can before popping all the recommended pills and just as the doctor said they do cause extra drowsiness and I am down and out for another long nap.

I finally open my eyes and its 07:30 pm and it feels like I have forever been sweating in this old, creaking bed. The medicine effect is slowly wearing off and I reach out for some more hoping that they will keep me going through another night.